I think of it as a necessary step before jumping into considering all other factors surrounding a trade. Although I felt pretty safe about my understanding, it all changed two days ago when I turned on the live account for applying my principles. My emotions blurred my rationale and I had a couple of lessons about my way of seeing the markets. I am going back to lines and rets for the next few weeks before attempting more advanced stuff with real money. Hence my post will be located on the bride´s thread. BTW, live calls and live trades dont go hand by hand, so I will no longer be able to post everything I do In "real time"
ITOH, these are the trades I spotted on replay. Had something at 9:30 and couldn't be in front of the screen.
Really liking the long at 9:30. I was finishing up my post here, was about 30 late to the open. Don't know if I would have been that quick on the draw even if I was watching. The rest looks decent, but where's the short at ~9:46-48? What were you seeing at the time?
No one who still has fear issues should be posting here. Adding secondary elements such as midpoints, 50% levels, S&R, DTs/DBs, reversals, LOLRblahblahblah help the confident trader to remain in the trade. For the less-than-confident trader, they provide excuses to get out -- and relieve the pressure -- or rationalize not entering at all. Today, for example, there was the initial TR bet 66 and 74 to consider. Then the initial thrust out of it an hour before the open. Then the next attempt at the open, the rapid failure, and the RET at 0946. Then the hesitation and DT at 74 as price rallies 50%. Then the DB at 1019 and the RET at 1025. And so on. All this versus just trading the lines. Those who are plagued by hesitation would be wise to calculate the difference in profits between doing no more than playing the lines and trading with all the add-ins. They may find that including all the additional elements just isn't worth the added stress of trading with them.
I was feeling just fine until i added real cash into the equation. Lets see how I do tomorrow only with lines and RETs. Thank you.
What about one minute later at 3471? SL is already up, and it's extremely steep. Trade can't get much easier to manage than that. You know it's a RET by then I hope. Price is a point or two away but that doesn't invalidate it. It's not like we're trying to scalp.
Keep in mind that the 1m bar is nothing more than an illustration of price movement that I use because it's commonly available. If one is actually watching price move, he can see that price is retracing its steps at that point. Whether it prints as a retracement using the bar interval one has chosen is irrelevant. And I remind those who read this stuff that one isn't trading the retracement but the exit from the retracement. No exit, no trade. And if one is posting here, he would also note that an exit from that retracement would be a coincident drop below the last two swing lows, which would not escape the attention of other traders.